Consciousness by Rita Carter
With contributions from:
Igor Aleksander, Susan J. Blackmore, David Chalmers, Daniel C. Dennett, Andrew Duggins,
Chris Frith, Jeffrey Gray, Stuart Hameroff, Nicholas Humphrey, J. Kevin O'Regan,
Jaak Panksepp, David Rosenthal, Alwyn Scott, John Searle, John Skoyles
Rita Carter ponders the nature, origins, and purpose of consciousness in this fascinating
inquiry into the toughest problem facing modern science and philosophy. Building on the
foundation of her bestselling book Mapping the Mind, she considers whether
consciousness is merely an illusion, a by-product of our brain's workings, some as yet
inexplicable feature or property of the material universe or--as the latest physics may
suggest--the very fundament of reality. Little, she discovers, is as it first seems.
Carter draws from a solid body of knowledge--empirical findings and theoretical
hypotheses--about consciousness, much of it derived from recent discoveries about the
brain. Her lively, accessible narrative ranges widely over new ways of thinking about
the subject and what direction new research is taking. Leading scholars from a range of
perspectives provide topical essays that complement Carter's account. The book also
discusses how traditional approaches--philosophical, scientific, and experiential--might
be brought together to create a more complete understanding of consciousness.
Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter
In Mapping the Mind, the first illustrated guide to the brain, Rita
Carter points to the latest developments in brain imaging to provide new insights
into how the human brain works. She argues that brain scans can reveal our
thoughts, memories and even our moods as clearly as X-rays reveal our bones.
Mapping the Mind attempts to chart how human behaviour and culture
are shaped by the architecture of the brain. Rita Carter sees individual personalities
as reflecting the geography of their particular brain and searches for the
biological mechanisms which create our thoughts and emotions. This book is
carefully researched and beautifully illustrated in full colour and provides a
challenging picture of what makes a human mind, and comes to some contentious
conclusions about human behaviour and free will.
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